In yesterday’s United States Department of Agriculture planting intentions report, American farmers say they intend to massively increase their acreage of canola this spring. They’re going to jack it up 40 percent or so. Wow! Big deal, huh? Well, I suspect you already are saying: “No it’s not. Americans don’t grow much canola anyway.” That’s […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
French, Russian wheat storms S. American market
A cock and a bear have moved into the bald eagle’s back yard and are eating its dinner. The key news in the wheat market last week were sales of French and Russian wheat to buyers in South America, a market where the U.S. traditionally does well. French and Russian grain sales to Latin America […] Read more
High protein levels saving grace for current wheat market
High protein is like gold in U.S. wheat markets. Wheat prices generally are dropping, but the highest protein wheat is falling by the least amount in the latest Canadian Wheat Board Pool Return Outlook for 2009-10. “There’s not a lot of it trading, but the bids are still out there,” said Fargo, North Dakota, grain […] Read more
Maybe a real spring this time . . .
Monday was delightful for anyone raising and selling hogs. The United States Department of Agriculture found that the the U.S. breeding herd was down 3.9 percent – far more than the 2.6 percent average guess of analysts before the Hogs and Pigs Report was released. Prices surged in response. That’s good. It’s about time the […] Read more
Pushing the spread
So are you a sucker for a good story? Most bad decisions get made when somebody falls for a convincing story that sounds great when someone tells it, but that doesn’t actually turn out to be true. Or not true enough to to create a payoff. Happens in the investing world all the time. So […] Read more
Broken market response: Talk to the Palm
So you’re a market-savvy prairie farmer. That means you understand that farmers yearly face a giant market risk when they have to choose what to seed for the growing season. Farmers have a host of factors to consider in choosing what to seed, and many are not market-related. Rotations are the obviously dominating factor for […] Read more
Will farmers buy in?
San Fransisco, Calif. – Having the ability to grow 15 million tonnes of canola by 2015 is not going to be the greatest challenge facing the canola industry. The real challenge will be convincing farmers that it’s worth producing that much, said Canola Council of Canada president JoAnne Buth at the organization’s annual convention. The […] Read more
Survival, not yield main focus of new varieties
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Canola has just begun to see its most important yield gains. But don’t expect to see best-ever yields rise dramatically, canola agronomy experts said at the Canola Council of Canada convention in San Francisco last week. The gains will be for crops that would normally fail but can now yield adequately […] Read more
Canola sector told to be ready to grab biofuel market share
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The bloom may be off the biodiesel rose, but a senior American biofuel promoter says the canola industry must keep working on it. The lacklustre support for biofuel will soon become more fervent. “You’re postured for very strong growth,” said Andy Karsner, former U.S. assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable […] Read more
Palm oil poses threat to canola market
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – David Jackson gave farmers a reason to be optimistic about canola prices for the future. “The next two to three years will provide chances for oil prices to go high,” said Jackson, a food oils analyst with LMC International, during the Canola Council of Canada’s convention in San Francisco last week. […] Read more
